Overcompensating
The race is on for who can build the world’s tallest building.
See if you can spot the common thread.
The race to build the world’s tallest building has reached a new level with plans for a mile-high tower to be built near the Red Sea port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
The multi-billionaire owner of the Savoy Hotel in London has unveiled plans for the ambitious £5 billion tower, which will overtake skyscrapers planned or under construction in Kuwait and Dubai.
The new tower will surpass the Burj Dubai, which is under construction
The Mile High Tower will be double the height of its nearest rival, and will be almost seven times the height of the Canary Wharf tower in London.
Visitors will be able to see Africa from the top of the tower, the Sunday Times newspaper reports.
Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding, which is controlled by billionaire Prince al-Walid bin Talal, will invite bids before July for contracts to build the tower in Saudi Arabia’s commercial capital.
The project will push architecture and engineering to new limits, as the tower must be robust enough to withstand the extremes of temperature and strong desert winds in the region.
Gulf Arab states, flush with funds from record high oil prices, are trying to outstrip each other to build the world’s tallest building.
They have opened up a strong gap over east Asian countries in the race, with mega-skyscrapers planned or under construction in Kuwait and the booming United Arab Emirate of Dubai.
The Burj Dubai, which is due for completion in 2009, had previously been predicted to take the crown as the world’s tallest man-made structure.
Prince al-Walid, a member of the Saudi royal family, bought the Savoy Hotel, in the Strand in London, for £1.25 billion in 2005
Mile High Tower? Either Prince al-Walid is finding it difficult to hide his true intentions, or his marketing manager is soon going to learn the hard way that beheading is not a dirty word in Saudi Arabia.
In any event, I am finding this “tallest building” race between the wealthy of Gulf Arab states rather amusing.
If you ask me, Leatherback turtles are a lot cheaper, and could apparently help them with their problem.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
You got them. With the way they treat women they had to be.
Here’s a striking panorama of before and after erections in Dubai.
The photo link
Everybody knows there are no erections in dubai. That’s why they import foreign workers. dubai women need some loooving . . .
Such lovely people.
I dunno……
To build a building this big, the worlds tallest……
…… ya gotta have balls.
“ya gotta have balls” No you don’t. You have to be fortunate enough to (1) having been born an savage, irresponsible monkey, over a sea of hydrocarbons AND (2) sharing the planet with people decent enough that instead of doing what you would do in their place, respect your rights and give you money. THEN you use part of that money and give it back to them and use THEIR own money and THEIR own technology so that they’ll build the tall buildings for you that you couldn’t build for yourself in a million years such as you have built nothing except for a religion of pig-worship, torture and mayhem.
No matter what you say, Jorge, monkeys still have balls.
Yes, Shy Guy, you’re right. And we still have knives.
OK….. why no quips about flying airplanes into these monstrosities???
Burj Dubai is designed from an American. According to a Telegraph story just a few days about about it. Isn’t that Ironic? Don’t you think?
Hopefully upon completion, the US will break off it’s alliances or leave the region, and see how long it takes for Al Qaeda to…oh wait, n/m. 9/11 was the jews, I forget.
I’m just wondering when Toronto is going to extend the CN Tower now that the title to the “world’s tallest freestanding structure” has been taken away.